I am awake during the day, and I sleep in the saddle at night, Inseparable from a steel shirt, The tried and tested chain mail, With a woven daud hand.
Arab poet Abu-t-Tayyib ibn al-Hussein al-Jufi (915-965)
Knights and chivalry of three centuries. The last time the material about the warriors of this period was published on "VO" on August 22, 2019. Since then, we have not addressed this topic. This material was dedicated to the warriors of Russia, but now, following our main source, the monograph by David Nicolas, we will go to hot Africa and get acquainted with the military affairs of huge territories, which in the Middle Ages were considered Christian (although sometimes purely nominally!), And also and some pagan areas that later became Muslim. However, many Christian regions, which will be discussed here, later also fell under the influence of Islam.
The warriors of North Africa and Sudan are Christians …
Egyptian Christians or Copts probably made up the majority of the population of this country for most of the Middle Ages and it is possible that they were recruited as sailors to serve in the Egyptian navy. The ancient Roman and Byzantine province of Africa, which mainly consisted of modern Tunisia plus most of northern Libya and Algeria, fell under the rule of Muslim Arabs in the 7th century and became their province of Ifrikia. The Christian rural population remained here, but declined until the 11th century, and in the cities the Christian population continued afterwards. Newly converted Christians were registered in the Tunisian army as early as the middle of the 12th century. So the process of replacing one faith with another took several centuries here.
South of Egypt, in Nubia and northern Sudan, the Christian kingdoms have maintained their independence for centuries, largely because their more powerful Islamic neighbors did not make any serious attempts to conquer them. The largest Christian states here were Nobatia, in present-day Sudanese Nubia; Mukurria in the Dongola region - the kingdom of the "black nobs" (nuba); and Meroe, and medieval sources called Meroe - Alva or Aloa in the area of modern Khartoum. Further south and east lay the Christian kingdom of Aksum, which later became known as Ethiopia, and remains Christian to this day. In the 9th century, Nubia and Aloa were united, but in the 13th century, due to the decline of Nubia, it regained its independence. But Mukurria was conquered by the Mamluks of Egypt at the beginning of the XIV century.
"Big onion" in African
It is interesting that throughout the era of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages, the "Nubians", which then included almost all the inhabitants of Christian Sudan, were known as archers, while the southern kingdom of Quince was famous for its horses. Such were the troops, consisting of Nubians or Sudanese in the service of Salah ad-Din (Saladin) and were referred to as archers in the 15th century. Most written sources indicate that the Nubian bows were not composite, but simple, made from acacia wood and were akin to those used in Ancient Egypt. At the same time, their bows were large and a bowstring woven from grass. It is interesting that the inhabitants of South Sudan still wear a ring on their thumb and it may very well be that this is a kind of memory of the lost Sudanese tradition of archery.
The Christian Nubian kingdoms controlled most of the territory from the Nile to the Red Sea, where various pagan and Muslim nomadic tribes lived. Among the latter were bija-beges, who fought on camels, armed with leather shields and spears. In the semi-desert and steppe regions in the west, nominally Christian peoples lived, including the Ahadi tribe, which was under the suzerainty of the kingdom of Alva. Like the pagan tribes south of the Sahara and further west, the ahadi used large leather shields, locally made spears and swords, and wore padded, padded armor.
As for Ethiopia, over time it became clearly more "African", but even in the 14th century, Christians of central Ethiopia were still described as fighting with big bows, swords and spears, while the Muslim Ethiopians in the southeast of the country were described as easy cavalry, dispensing with stirrups. Around the same time, other Muslim Ethiopians were described by their contemporaries as archers.
Modeled after the Islamic armies …
The penetration of Islam into Africa radically changed the military affairs of many of its peoples. For example, in the state of Kanem-Bornu, lying on the shores of Lake Chad, its ruler Hum (1085-1097) converted to Islam in the second half of the 11th century, called many Muslim scholars to his court, and his son not only made a pilgrimage to Mecca twice, but and created a cavalry army, consisting first of Arab warriors, and then of slaves, modeled on the gulams. It is believed that it numbered 30 thousand people (most likely this figure was exaggerated by medieval authors - V. Sh.). These were riders on horses, dressed in quilted armor with spears and shields, that is, in fact, a real knightly cavalry.
A comparable degree of Islamic military influence, albeit this time from North Africa, could be seen in parts of West Africa, especially in the 14th century Islamic Sultanate of Mali. Here archers and spearmen, both foot and horse, formed the backbone of the army. Everything is exactly the same as with the Arabs themselves.
Egypt about the Fatimids and Ayyubids
As for Egypt and its geographical borders during the era of the Crusades, it is much easier to establish what happened here at this time than in most other regions conquered by Muslims. From the middle of the 10th century until 1171, the country was ruled by the Fatimid caliphs. By the middle of the 11th century, the Fatimids controlled Egypt, Syria and most of Libya and claimed suzerainty over Tunisia, Sicily and Malta. By the end of the century, however, their North African possessions hardly extended beyond the eastern part of Libya, while in Syria it was reduced to several coastal cities, which were subsequently recaptured by the Crusaders after several years of bitter struggle.
In 1171, the Fatimids were replaced by the Sunni Ayyubid dynasty, the first of which was Salah ad-Din (Saladin). Despite the fact that their power extended in Africa to most of Libya and south to Yemen, their main interests lay in the northeast direction. Here they clashed with the crusader states in Palestine and Syria, although they managed to extend their rule all the way to the current border of Iran, including in much of what is now southeastern Turkey. However, in 1250, they were replaced by the Mamluks in Egypt and parts of Syria as a result of a military coup, although the Ayyubid princes continued to rule some Asian provinces after this event for several decades.
And then the Mamluks faced the Mongol invasion of Syria. The Mongols were driven back only after a desperate battle at Ain Jalut, when on September 3, 1260, their army under the command of Sultan Kutuz and Emir Beibars met with the Mongol corps from the Hulagu army under the command of Kitbuk Noyon. The Mongols were then defeated, and Kitbuk was killed. A new border was established along the Euphrates. This left the territory of modern Iraq under the control of the Great Khan, and the Mamluks received the Hejaz with the holy cities of all Muslims, as well as the recently conquered Christian Nubia and northern Sudan.
Fatimid army
The Fatimid army from the 10th to the middle of the 11th centuries consisted mainly of infantry, supported by a relatively small number of fairly lightly armed cavalry. Archery was in the hands of the infantry, and spears were used by both cavalry and infantry. Many of the infantry moved on camels, which made the Fatimid army quite mobile. But as far as heavy weapons are concerned, they had problems with that. Although it is known that they had their own elite units of mercenaries, in particular the Turkish cavalry of the gulams, horse archers and black African slaves. The local forces in Fatimid Syria appear to have consisted primarily of urban militias who served Bedouin pay and any eastern troops available for recruitment.
At the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries, power fell into the hands of the Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamalt and his son al-Afdal, under whose leadership a whole series of military reforms was carried out. The proportion of professional mercenaries and slave troops has been increased. It is possible that they also increased the number of horsemen and dressed the elite units in armor. However, the Jamalid Fatimids continued to rely on traditional infantry archers and sword and spear-armed cavalry, using sophisticated but outdated tactics that existed under the Muslim early caliphs.
The Fatimid army remained multinational, and clashes broke out between different ethnic groups.
Ayyubid army
The military changes that have occurred as a result of the Ayyubids' rise to power may well have been exaggerated. Salah ad-Din relied primarily on the elite cavalry units created during the later Fatimid army. Only at the very end of the Ayyubid period were efforts made to create a unitary army with elite Mamluk units under the direct control of the Sultan.
Recruitment into the army under the Ayyubids was distinguished by the fact that initially they relied mainly on the Kurds or Turkmens, and then more and more on the Mamluks of Turkish origin. The Arabs played a secondary role, and the Iranians even less, while the Armenians, Berbers and blacks soon after the seizure of power by Saladin disappeared from his army very quickly.
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria was a military state created largely for the benefit of the army. And this army was probably the most effective of all that were created in the Middle Ages in North Africa and Western Asia, and became the model on the basis of which an even more effective Ottoman army was later created. Its organization was complex and even "modern" in some respects, with a high level of discipline. Most of the Mamluks in the Ayyubid army came from slaves … from southern Russia or the western steppes. They were bought, then prepared and trained accordingly. A significant number of Mongol refugees also entered the service of the Ayyubids, which allowed them to gain invaluable experience in waging war against the Mongols and their henchmen. There were also many Kurds in the Ayyubid troops, but they were mainly stationed in Syria and were not so … popular in comparison with the Mamluk slaves.
It's hard to learn, easy to hike
One of the most remarkable features of the Mamluk army was the elaborate training system of personnel, based on the experience of Byzantium. The Mamluks placed great emphasis on archery, swordsmanship and spear exercises, as well as perfecting the art of horsemanship known as furusiyya. Equestrian games with a spear and a ring, equestrian polo, horse races were regularly held, and the riders learned to shoot from a bow from a horse.
Unlike the Ottomans, the Mamluks also realized the benefits of firearms relatively quickly and began to use them early. Several types of cannon are mentioned in 1342 and 1352, although the first undeniable references date back to the mid-1360s. Most likely it was light artillery and, possibly, primitive types of hand firearms.
P. S. Later on the site of Kanem-Bornu (and this state is named so because first there was Kanem, and then Bornu) the Bagirmi sultanate (Begharmi) arose and there was also a cavalry in quilts and with very strange spears. Although not in all drawings they are like that. About this same image, it is reported that it was made according to the description of Dixon Denem, who visited Bagirmi in 1823.
References
1. Nicolle, D. The Military Technology of Classical Islam (Ph. D.thesis, Edinburgh University, 1982).
2. Nicolle, D. Yarmyk 630 AD. The muslim conguest of Syria. L.: Osprey (Campaign series # 31), 1994.
3. Nicolle, D. The Armies of Islam 7th - 11th centuries. L.: Osprey (Men-at-arms series No. 125). 1982.
4. Nicolle, D. Armies of the Caliphates 862-1098. L.: Osprey (Men-at-arms series No. 320), 1998.
5. Nicolle D. Saracen Faris 1050-1250 AD. L.: Osprey (Warrior series No. 10), 1994.
6. Heath, I. Armies of the Middle Age. Volume 1, 2 Worthing, Sussex. Flexiprint ltd. 1984.
7. Nicolle, D. Arms and Armor of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350. UK. L.: Greenhill Books. Vol. 2.
8. Shpakovsky, V. O. Knights of the East. M.: Pomatur, 2002.
